Sweet Queen Bee

This fun easel card was inspired by Sharon-Elaine Jones’s floral wreaths and spinner cards on Craftworld.com, Sandy Diller’s recent crosshatch label and tag book card and a challenge to myself to make an interactive card with Karen Burniston’s fancy shaped labels that didn’t involve them being used as flat labels.

This spinning honeycomb with bees in a floral wreath easel card, uses the label dies in three different ways. The largest dis where used to create the wreath and its white inner frame. The smallest die was cut four times, each folded in half and glue together around a string. The second smallest die was used to cut the raised “Queen BEE” label that acts as the easel stop.

Using Karen Burniston’s Flutter Charms die set cut enough pieces for two bees and four honeycombs. Cut two of the largest label crosshatch die in pink. From Karen’s tag book die set cut two of the tags and one of the rectangle spine piece in pink.  

Cut from black the words “Queen” from Karen’s Word Set 5 and “sweet” from Word Set 6. Cut “Queen” a second time from orange and “sweet” from white. Ink the white “Sweet into a dark pink with Distress Ink. Glue the pair of words to create shadows or highlights by off-setting the words slightly.

Cut eight of the daisy flowers and four of the smaller butter cup flowers. Cut four pairs of the bee wings in green for leaves. Glue two of the daisy flowers one on top of the other alternating the petals. Repeat with remaining daisy flowers to end with four flowers.  Add flower centers using contrasting colors of Nuvo drops. Keep the flowers on a flat surface for at least 12 hours until they are hardened. (I was glad I had made a few extra as I accidentally flatten one of the orange daisy centers before it had hardened.)

Trim off the excess honeycomb to leave a 6 petal flower-like honeycomb that will fit inside the small yellow labels.

Glue honeycomb flowers to yellow labels.

Fold labels in half.

Glue two labels together on one folded half. Repeat with other two labels.

Glue piece of twine in the middle of the joined label halves.

Glue the other half of label to sandwich the twine in the middle. Let dry. Glue the egg shapes to the back of the bee bodies. Trim the charm circle off antenna.  Glue vellum wings to the bee body. (See assembly video.)

Position one of the large pink labels on the front of a tag. Using a pencil trace the outline of the tag onto the back of the label.

With removable tape, attach the tag to label.

On the front of the label, tape the third largest die to center of label.  Die cut through both label and tag. Using the first cut label as a guide to cut the second label’s center out.

I had to photoshop this picture to let you know to cut the entire label out and not partial as I did for my original picture.)

Fold the tag book so that the cut-out is fold in half. put glue only below the fold on the tag book piece. Glue the large label with pencil markings to the wreath to the front tag.

Glue the two tags together with the rectangle spine piece. (You can review the tag book assembly video for tips in assembling the book.)

Spread glue on the inside of pink wreath that is glued to card base. Stretch the twine centering the honeycomb with the bees glued to it. Using small pieces of permanent tape, adhere the twine in place making sure the twine is moderately taunt. Place the top pink wreath in place and press together make a tight seal to the two layers of wreath especially around the twine.

(Tip: Glue the bees on opposite sections of the honeycomb labels to have balanced weight. I made the mistake of gluing them both on the same side and it spins a bit lopsided.)

For the easel stop, cut two of the second smallest label dies once in pink and once in black. Die cut the word “BEE” from Word Set 5 in the pink label. Glue the black label to back.

I used half of the label that I cut from the large label, fold in half and half again to use as the spacer under the Bee label. (You could also use foam tape or foam dots.)

The card folds flat to fit into an A2 size envelope which I stamped the back flap with a bee in flight from Apple Blossom in black ink.

Thank you for reading this blog post. Please like and leave comments 😊

Materials Used:

Dies

Stamps

  • Apple Blossom – Bee Happy stamp set from Die-Cutting Essentials magazine issue 89

Inks & Pigments

  • Ranger – Jim Holtz Distress Ink – Saltwater Taffy
  • Memento Fade -Resistant Dye Ink – Tuxedo Black

Papers

  • Heavy weight pink cardstock from my stash
  • Yellow, orange, green and black cardstock scraps
  • White-gold shimmer paper scrap
  • Clear vellum

Miscellaneous

Blue Truck Kinda Day

Ever have one of those blue truck kinda days when an old pick-up truck full of flowers (maybe sunflowers?) would really brighten your day? Here is a fun spinning and shaking little truck full of flowers to brighten your day!

For this spinning shaker truck, I cut 3 craft foam trucks, 2 sets of the blue truck, wheel cover, tires, hub caps and brown truck bed fencing. I also cut 2 pieces of acetate to cover the truck bed fencing. Before I cut the foam pieces, I covered enough foam on both sides with sheets of double-sided adhesive to cut two of the three foam trucks.

Blue truck -CU

Having made other spinning shaker elements for cards I found that having one sheet of foam that is not covered in adhesive will help stabilize the shape. Aligning one adhesive backed foam shape with the plain foam shape and then slowly pealing off the backing paper means that your truck shape will be properly aligned. Align and adhere the blue truck paper to the front of the truck by slowly peeling of backing paper. Repeat with other double-sided adhesive foam piece and blue truck piece.

Glue acetate to back side of the 2 truck bed fencing pieces. Glue one of these pieces to the truck. Fill the truck bed with shaker elements. Glue other acetate fencing piece to seal up shaker element. Finish adding tires, wheel covers and any other decorating of truck, such as a thin strip of blue paper to cover the exposed edges of foam.

Blue truck -front

Thread a long sewing needle with black thread and pull the center of truck.  Create card base with cut out rectangle on front.  Align truck and thread in the middle of the rectangular opening. Tape thread in place off card base and glue overnight to card base. Once glue is dry tape thread in place and trim excess thread off.  Decorate card base with frames of patterned paper.

Blue truck -inside

Using Versamark Watermark ink stamp sentiment on white card and heat emboss in black. Adhere white card to inside back of card.

I stamped a yellow flower on the back-envelope flap.

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Ink/Embossing Powder

Shaker Elements

Miscellaneous

Florida Snow Day

What’s a Florida snow day? Well, one version is a snow globe with a palm tree that says Florida.

This card was inspired by Sharon-Elaine Jone’s spinning shaker card on Craftworld.com, Spellbinder’s Santa’s Workshop die set’s snow globe and one very hot and humid day in Florida.

A. Die Cut – 2 trees (I used textured paper for trunk), 2 globes from white cardstock, 2 globes from acetate , 2 globes from foam (I put double-sided adhesive sheets on both sides of foam before cutting.), 2 globe bases from orange cardstock and 2 “Snowday” sentiment.

B. Snow globe

    1. Palm tree
      • Glue one branches onto top of tree trunk.
      • Glue backside of tree to monofilament. Glue second tree trunk to encase monofilament line. Glue remaining branches to tree.
      • Distress ink tree.
    2. Assemble snow globe
      • Glue 1 paper globe to1 acetate globe and let dry. Repeat with second globe paper and acetate pieces.
      • Peeling back only the top knob off adhesive on foam globe, adhere to inside of one acetate globe. Peel, align and slowly adhere all of one foam globe to one acetate globe. Repeat with second foam globe and other acetate globe.
    3. Filling snow globe
      • Using the grid on a craft mat, lay the palm tree on top of one acetate globe against foam side. Tape aligned monofilament line to the craft mat above and below globe
      • Loosen backing paper from top of globe and press monofilament into sticky foam. Do not take off any other backing paper but globe knob.
      • Sprinkle sequins into center of globe, pushing some under and over palm tree. Keep sequins away from foam edges.
      • Lay second acetate globe over first globe, foam side to foam side. Slowly, remove backing paper from both foam sides, aligning edges together a little bit at a time until globe is sealed.
      • Pull monofilament taunt and test the spinning action of globe shaker.
      • Using scrape foam with double-sided adhesive as foam tape, adhere orange globe bases to globe on monofilament. (Write “FLORIDA” on bases before adhering.)

Florida Snow Day-inside-1

C. Card Base

    1. Select decorative papers (three pieces – two at 6 x 4 ½ inches for front frame and one at 6 x 4 ¾ inches for inside back)
      • Tape one of the small decorative paper pieces to front of card base and tape rectangle die (Needs to be large enough for globe to freely spin inside of) to over both paper and base. Die cut out rectangle. Remove tape and use decorative paper to trace in pencil the placement of die for other piece of decorative paper and cut out rectangle. (I cut the frames separately, so any die embossing/decorative piercing is prominent on both fronts of frame pieces.)
      • If you want, you can cut a narrow border frame for the opening as I did.
      • With a pencil, lightly mark the center point of the rectangular opening at the top and bottom of the card base. Using the marks, score the card base and fold the right front half of base to the left to make a valley fold.

D. Attaching globe spinner

    1. Open card base open so “frame” section is flat and the top and bottom fold creases are aligned on craft mat grid. Aline the globe shaker’s monofilament line with fold creases on card base extending the line to match craft mat grid line. Tape extended line to mat to hold firmly in place.

Florida Snow Day-shaker detail 1

    • Glue monofilament line to the top and bottom of card base frame. Let glue dry 1-2 hours or overnight.

Florida Snow Day-shaker detail 3

    • Once glue is dry, wrap extra line around frame at fold. Tape over wrapped line with clear tape on inside of fold.

Florida Snow Day-shaker detail 2

E. Decorating Card

  1. Adhere one of the 6 x 4 ½ inches decorative paper frames to the front of card alining the opening with the halved card base frame. Adhere on the inside of card the other decorative frame piece so that the two decorative pieces from a front and back frame for the snow globe to spin inside of.
  2. If you cut a border frame adhere it now.
  3. Add “Snowday” sentiment at bottom on each side of frame.
  4. Aline the third piece of decorative paper on inside back of card base with the front frame.
  5. Mark the corners of where the decorative paper should go lightly with pencil on card base.
  6. With the decorative paper laying on card base, position inside greeting stamp and tape stamp in place with removable tape.
  7. Carefully remove the paper to be stamped and place in a stamping platform to stamp with Versamark Watermark ink. Remember to wipe paper with an antistatic bag or tool before stamping.
  8. Once stamped, use white embossing powder and heat emboss sentiment.
  9. Adhere embossed paper to inside of card using pencil alinement marks.

Florida Snow Day-inside-2

Decorate the back of card (This may be the place you choose to write your personal message at.)

Florida Snow Day-BACK Envelope

I stamped the back of the envelope with what I hope would be taken as a palm tree, using what stamps I had since I don’t have a palm tree stamp.

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

Paper

Inks

Miscellaneous

 

 

 

The Circus is Coming!

Circus-inside

After seeing numerous circus theme cards being made because of Craft Consortium’s Circus collection and Sam Calcott’s Mixed Up Crafts tutorials on circus themed spinner cards. I decided to make my slimline version using some wooden block rubber stamps that I had played with as a child.

The funny thing about these stamps was I thought I had lost them in my last move, but a few days ago the battered box they were in caught my eye as I was looking for something else on my craft shelves. My great aunt who had been a schoolteacher from the 1920s-1960s had given the original of the stamps to my siblings and I. My father having a machine to make rubber stamps, was able to duplicate the stamps so that each of the children in my family could have our own set.

Circus-stamps

As I reacquainted myself with these stamps, I found the lady who I always made ride the prancing horse and the flying trapeze artist. There was my favorite stamp – the cage wagon in which I could stamp whatever animal I wanted to be in the cage. There were seals and bears balancing balls and a dog that would jump through a paper covered hoop. This was definitely a circus from another era with different notions of how to treat animals.

Because I could not find any suitable red and white striped paper in my stash, I used Adobe Illustrator to create the striped paper I needed and to create a number of versions and sizes of the circus sign.

Circus-front

Because the slimline card is 4 inches by 9 inches, it will fit into a #10 business size envelope. With this long and narrow card, I could make my 3-ring circus with two spinners and the flying trapeze artist using nesting circle dies to cut out the three circles and created decorative rings to frame the cut-out circles. I should have taped my two sheets of stripped cardstock together and cut all three holes on both sheets at the same time having them lined up. (I made the mistake of cutting first one and then having to tracing the holes on to the second sheet.)  (NOTE: Don’t glue your backing paper to your front until you attach the spinners.)

I highly recommend watching the spinner videos by Sam Calcott before making one. I used black sewing thread for this card using 2 to 4 strands for the spinners. (NOTE: Don’t glue your backing paper to your front until you attach the spinners.) I also stamped reverse images of the three stamps I wanted for spinners/swingers using a gellie plate. (Sam demonstrates in one of her other videos how to make the reverse image. Sorry I don’t remember which video, but it involves giraffes.) I used the printable glitter paper because it is glitzy, but also it hides bad stamping better.

Circus-inside-flat

Having learned a few tricks since I had last played with these stamps, I masked off parts of the cage wagon before I stamped the bull lion (We always called this stylized creature the bull lion because we didn’t really know which it was.)

I cut a white stitched rectangle from a Lawn Fawn die set to use as a place for a personal message.

To active the spinners, you must twist them before closing the card and placing in the envelope. They will spin when the card is open.

Supplies

Dies

Stamps

  • Rubber stamps designed circa 1920-1960 from my stash

Inks/Watercolors

Paper

Miscellaneous